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Linux: What You Want To Know

Final Considerations

File Systems

File systems are one of those things that are usually of concern to the technically oriented, but there are some things that users should consider about them. All file systems waste disk space. Some waste more than others. A power failure (or someone turning the computer off without using a shutdown procedure) can cause data corruption. Some file systems protect against such corruption; others do not.

Windows XP supports two file systems, FAT32 and NTFS. Linux supports over eighty. (Many of these are special purpose. Others have been used in the past, but are seldom used now.)

Mr. Lake has no figures of proof, but he believes that he has more usable disk space with his Ext3 file system under Linux than he had with his FAT32 file system under Windows.

Neither of the file systems that Microsoft supports protects against data loss if the power to the computer is suddenly lost. Some of the file systems that Linux supports do. Linux users have another option that Windows users do not.

Disk Maintenance

Automatic defragmentation and file backup software are extra cost options as late as Windows NT. Mr. Lake does not know whether this is true of Windows XP. Automatic defragmentation is built into Linux. There is free Linux software that can be used for backups. Two file transfer programs (disk to disk) are "rsync" and "mirrordir." Backup software may also be purchased for Linux.

Activation

Piracy is a major problem in the software industry. Microsoft is trying to solve it one way; the Linux community has solved it another way. A new feature in Windows XP and Office XP is Activation. The purchaser of a Microsoft license must get Microsoft's permission to use these products when they are installed or when certain hardware changes are made to the user's computer. The purpose of this feature is to make certain that a single copy of the software is not installed on more than one computer. Activation is of no benefit to the user; it will make Microsoft richer. Activation is not and will not be a part of Linux. It is perfectly OK to install a single copy of Linux on as many machine as the user desires. It is also OK to make copies of your Linux CDs and share them.

Resources

Linux would not have been possible without the Internet. The Internet is still one of the best sources of information about Linux. We have listed some Internet resource sites. These have links to many more.

• www.redhat.com
• www.ibm.com/services/learning/spotlight/linux/all.html
• learn.ibm.be/linux
• www.linux.org
• home.xnet.com/~blatura/linapp3.html

Security Issues

Viruses

There are anti-virus programs available for Linux. Frisk Software has a free one for Linux and one that may be purchased for Windows. There are also others. To find them, enter "linux anti-virus" in your search engine. A more in-depth coverage of viruses and Linux can be read in The Linux Virus Threat, by Russell Pavlicek. In it he shows how that the virus threat is much less in a Linux system than in a Windows system.

Services and Listening Ports

Both Windows and Linux have programs that run in the background (services) and ports that an invader may use to gain access to a computer. If they are all closed, the user may not do things that need to be done, like access the Internet. Red Hat Linux 7.2, and perhaps other Linux distributions, handle this situation quite well. When Linux is installed, the user must specify the level of security desired. This controls what services and listening ports are enabled. If the level of security is set very high, the administrator must specifically open any service or port. If it is set very low, the user may do more things, but the computer is open to "attack".

Linux has some built-in firewall protection. Additional free firewall software may be used to provide all the protection that may be needed.

The bottom line is that the security of your Linux system is just what the administrator of your computer makes it to be.

Summary

Compared to any Windows operating system, Linux:

• Is more secure
• Is more stable
• Is higher quality
• Is considerably less expensive (like FREE)
• Has more customizing options
• Has all the software most users need
• Has software that is compatible with Windows software on other computers
• Is less susceptible to viruses and to hacker invasion
• Is able to be installed on multiple machines -- legally
• May be shared, requiring no one's permission
• Does not report your computer usage to any company
• Does not link you to sites of some company's choosing
• Does not force you to upgrade on some company's schedule